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Message: <blockquote data-quote="megamania" data-source="post: 1281085" data-attributes="member: 9255">STRIKEFORCE: MORITURISEGMENT 018“Battle of Trophies and Artifacts”Megamania slowly edges back into the shadows.  Vander accesses his power to become more resilient to damage.  Jean wonders what weather she can conjure up within the deep reaches of this building.  Christina takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly.  She hoped not to have to do this.  Especially indoor where ranged attacks would be limited.  The Captain calls for assembly.  Maestro chuckles at that one.“I once met someone very much like you.  A born leader and he had a voice that commanded gods- as that hammer shows.  You have those same traits.  You’re younger than he is.  Are you his son?  I knew of a daughter.  She tasted pretty good.” The Maestro slowly walks to a neutral corner.  His every move is designed to both be cautious and taunting at the same time.  He felt he could defeat these “heroes” easily enough.  So, it was time to gloat about his trophy room.“He had a shield also.  Much more resilient to damage than yours.  Maybe because the Molecular Man phased it and the Nega Bands together.  Who knows.  Its here somewhere…along with my other memories.Hmmm.  I’m certain I saw five of you.  Where did the rebellious teenager go?  I have not seen anyone running around in torn and faded blue jeans like that since the late 80’s. And…hello.  Who have we here?”  The base but savage brute stares at Jean, the Storm Wielder.  His leering grin and other bodily gestures tell everyone what is on his evil mind.“You are truly a beauty of beauties.  I may let you live…in the beginning.”“ENOUGH!” yells the Captain.  “Have you no dignity?”“Better her than you boy.” Says the Maestro in a low and menacing growl.The Captain begins to scan the entire room looking for a weapon…any weapon…to use.PO’d now…and out of patience, the Maestro howls out loud and throws wide his arms.  The gesture shatters jars and knocks over equipment.  The glass case the hammer stood within breaks.  Vander grabs it and goes to stand up.  It is held fast.“Hah-ha-ha-hah!  Same thing happened to me.  Because of that damned thing I had to build the trophy room here.  Good to see you are not worthy to wield it either.”  The Maestro takes a step towards Vander who quickly retreats.Knowing they can not retreat- the Captain can do only what he can.  “Now!”The Captain upturns a large barrel filled with powders that blow towards Maestro.  Megamania, having climbed onto the rafters with something he found, begins to attack using a complex compound bow with arrows that contain electronic parts and glass tips.  These tips break on impact releasing a strong acid that makes the Maestro snarl.  Vander once more attacks psionically hoping to slow the beast down.  This time he can not hold onto the enraged mind.   Enraged now, the beast thus begins to scatter parts everywhere making the Captain and Vander take cover.  The red and gold chest plate strikes a cabinet behind the Captain causing it to topple.  A draw becomes lose and reveals something to the Captain’s eye.  Something…unique.Jean concentrates on sucking all the heat away from the brute.  A cone shaped path of no heat erupts between her and him.  He howls in the cold and pain as the very moisture in his lungs begin to freeze.  Christina strikes him with a blast of fire as before.  The two extremes make his skin crack and bleed a thick dark green ooze.The Captain moves behind the debris looking for cover and commands for more strikes from the two women.  His eyes constantly divert to something he saw.  Something that seems to call to him.  Vander understands the plan well enough to strike from the distance.  He grabs a gem that has fallen to the floor from a stand marked as "remains of Sandman and Charcoal".  He begins to will energy into it to excite the sleeping energy within it.  Maestro…now angered, gets up and charges the two women.  Jean mentally calls onto her boots of flying and takes to the air.  Her cape spreads out as if they were wings or the sails of a great ship.  Christina opens a dimensional door and steps through it while extending her middle finger at the oncoming hulk.  A quiet “That is uncalled for” is heard even as her black cat leaps in with her.The Captain forgets the battle for the moment.  Something has gotten his attention.  Something more important than the battle.  He begins to tear into the wooden cabinets.  Megamania fires his energy gun not at the creature but at the ceiling above him.  The supports holding a large metallic hand burst free and it falls free.  Vander releases his exploding gem.   The rushing hulk crashes into the wall causing much of it to break free.  He whirls around looking for his women when a large hand suddenly swats him back into the wall.  He pushes it aside suddenly something explodes before his face.  Angry and now with a bleeding nose and swollen eye he declares obscenities to everyone within the room.  Jean casts an Ice Storm onto him and Christina Flame Strikes him again.  The huge hand shields him some from the fiery blast.The Captain continues to dig.  Megamania, with nothing else to shot onto the beast begins direct shots onto him.  His shots can not penetrate the brute’s thick hide.  Vander switches to his psionic Compound Bow while moving out of the beast’s range.  The creature pushes the hand away easily then charges Jean again while telling her in every detail what he plans for her body.  He doesn’t care if she is alive or not at the time.  Jean decides to unleash her big guns.  Outside of the building, clouds gather and darken.  They light up and suddenly lightning strikes arc and flash riddling the palace with strikes.  Christina taughts the beast again then says the final words of her Blade Barrier spell.  Green icor splatters the wall as the brute withdraws his torn up hand.  Confusion is replaced quickly with new fury at this affront.  The Captain kicks free the last board and reaches down to grab what he had seen.  Megamania sees a bloody stump and aims for it.  He scores two hits that remove the last of his torn thumb.   RAAARRRGH!Vander lets lose with several shafts that are psionically charged.  One misses the charging monster but he adjusts and leads the next shot and strikes his thick shoulder getting another snarl out of him.  The Maestro continues his charge at the column nearest where Megamania once was.  He tears it down as he hits it.  Jean however is caught up in the lines of hanging trophies that now swing wildly.  Christina tries to direct the beast into the barrier again.  The blades cut deeply into his back and already ravaged arm.  At this point, he realizes he has never fought a group as powerful as this.  Their hit and run tactics are working against him.  He looks for the one item that nearly has defeated him before.  An item not of his world.  Strange feared it but used it on him as a last measure.  The Headband of Chatlutta-Khan.  He sees where he kept it.  He smiles as he sees a lone figure standing there with his back now to him.  He half stumbles and half runs to the Captain.  The Captain turns and heaves what he found at the beast.  It hits him over and over before ricocheting off the wall back to his out reached hand.  “Glad you could join me Maestro.  Let me further introduce you to the SHIELD OF TRUTH AND JUSTICE.  Before him is a round shield much like his last one.  The surface on this one however has an image of swirling cosmos and stars.  It is like a thing alive.  It is the shield of this world ...this reality…  now of this Captain.Grunting and wobbly, the Maestro works towards an exit.  His minor wounds are already knitting together and healing.  Megamania’s sharp eyes see something else in the mess at the Captain’s feet.  The headband they were looking for.“We should finish off that monster.” Declares Jean.  “I would normally agree but this is more important.  With this artifact, we can save ALL the universes, not just this one.” Says the Captain as he picks up the diamond encrusted thin headband.  He can feel its hatred of being held by him.  But the warmth and comfort of the shield shields his mind as well as body.  The artifact can not grasp his mind.Christina calls down her barrier and has everyone gather together.  She begins to call up her planar spell to return to the starting point outside of time and reality.When these five heroes…champions…. first gathered, they did not trust each other.  They not only did not understand each others abilities but also in many cases didn’t believe the powers existed.  It is too soon to call them a team but now…now they know what they can accomplish if they at least try to work as a team.</blockquote>

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